


All I Need

by persephone20



Series: the Haunted series [4]
Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-18
Updated: 2011-08-18
Packaged: 2017-10-22 19:07:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/241509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephone20/pseuds/persephone20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU in which Elena is romantically involved with both Salvatore brothers, Anna is not dead, Jeremy is happy, well, happy-ish, because Jenna has just stabbed herself and Katherine has broken Stefan and Elena up. For now. Follows a couple of weeks after the events of <i>Bloodsteam</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All I Need

**Author's Note:**

> Set after the events that occur in season 2, episode 6 Plan B. Always more thanks to the wonderful coquilleon for being my beta and person I can ramble to.

Elena’s crying on the bed in her room. Stefan’s nowhere nearby, he’s always been nearby, but now he’s not, and Damon wonders if he’s ever going to be there again. The three of them. Inseparable, or so they thought. And now, the only reason why Damon is lying on her bed with her, while Elena sobs out her heart over her other lover, is because the rest of the town thinks the love he has for her is unrequited.

For, surely, that’s the only reason why Katherine has left them alone thus far.

Damon’s brow creases, and he banishes thoughts of Katherine with ‘Shhhhing’ sounds, while Elena clings to him as though he is her final lifeline. He’s never been anyone’s lifeline before, and doesn’t quite know what to do. All he does know is that he’s not going to let her down while she goes through this. If he only does one right thing in his life, it’s going to be this.

Right now, Elena's not thinking of any of that. It's difficult to focus on Stefan right now--or of Damon beyond his being the lap she cries on--when she's thinking that all of this is her fault. Stefan will be alright, but Jenna...

They'd stopped giving Jenna vervain. At the beginning, it had only been to get it out of her system so that Damon could show her exactly why it was a good idea that Elena lived at the boarding house, and Jeremy staying at the boarding house often enough that he may as well have lived there. Somewhere along the line, they just... hadn't gotten around to making sure Jenna wore vervain in her jewellry, or had it with her food. It hadn't been exactly like Elena or Jeremy had been seeing a lot of her.

And now she was lying in a hospital bed, and Elena was still wearing the same clothes she'd been wearing the night before when she'd turned around to see Jenna bury that knife into herself. And Katherine...

Katherine had promised she wouldn't hurt Stefan, Damon or Anna if she'd complied with her wishes. She hadn't made any such promises about Jenna, or even Jeremy. Which was why Jeremy was in hiding with Anna. Even Elena didn't know where she'd taken her brother. Didn't want to know. The horror of hearing Katherine's voice over the phone still managed to sneak into her thoughts.

 _"I want to be sure that you understand I am serious," Katherine's voice had said in her ear, while Elena had just concentrated on keeping her voice steady and normal. Alaric could tell there was something wrong; she could see it in his body language. But he hadn't known something was wrong fast enough to stop Jenna from..._

 _Another phone call, this time at the hospital. Rules were to turn your phone off, but Elena wondered how many people forgot that particular rule in the midst of personal tragedy. Katherine's controlled voice had told her to leave the hospital. She had stood at the entrance, amidst the smokers, and listened to Katherine's instructions._

 _"You are no longer to see Stefan." Her words were calm, and slowly said, as though to ensure there would be no misunderstanding. "I gave him back to you, now I will take him away. I can be very rewarding, Elena. And very cruel."_

 _Elena hadn't considered to ask what kind of rewards Katherine could possibly give. Already, her mind's eye conjured images of Jeremy alone in their house and bleeding out. It had been after that she had called Anna to come to the hospital and take Jeremy away._

She had told Stefan and Damon about Katherine that night. There had been no way around it. As soon as Katherine's name was mentioned, both brothers became very quiet. Elena remained in shock until Damon escorted her home.

As Damon holds her, he doesn't think she realises how terrified her words, "It's over. Katherine's won," made him. Though she looked at Stefan when she said them, the words came out with such awful finality. He realised he'd always thought that the end of Stefan and Elena would be the end of him and Elena too.

But when she had turned around and clung to him, he hadn’t needed to ask any questions. His faith had been restored and now he just needed to find some way to fix this.

**

She’s a different girl when she walks to school the next day. No amount of make-up can hide the shadows of sleeplessness under her eyes, or the fact that she’s been crying for hours. Alaric isn’t at school today, and the fact that they have a substitute just rubs the whole thing even worse.

She doesn’t even make it to lunch time before she is blindly making her way through the school corridors, into Caroline’s arms.

“I just heard. I’m so sorry. I’m _so_ sorry.” Caroline blames herself, though it is clear that she’s the only one doing the blaming. Even Bonnie doesn’t blame her now that she knows the story of how Katherine twisted her.

You should be scared of her, Elena had once said to Caroline. In truth, they should all be scared of her.

Elena had been able to help Matt through it when they found Vicky’s body, but he can’t do the same for her. Caroline and Matt share an awkward moment. There are so many things unsaid, so many things that Matt doesn't know and so can't say. 'Sorry Katherine broke you and Stefan up.' 'Sorry Katherine compelled Jenna to stab herself.' 'Sorry Katherine turned Caroline into a vampire.' The odd circumstances just keep mounting up in Mystic Falls but, somehow, Matt seems to be immune to them. Elena wishes that she could be like that.

Before lunch time, it's all Elena can do not to curl in a ball and start screaming, “Not again, not again, not again!”

Damon is there with a car at lunch time, almost as though he could hear those silent screams. They don’t talk as they drive. Elena doesn’t ask how Stefan is, and Damon doesn’t supply any answers. Every so often he looks across to where she's sitting. Elena really does want to reach out and take his hand while he drives, but all she’s thinking is how long will it take before Katherine finds out about their relationship? She doesn’t think she can handle losing Damon too.

And so they are silent, both with too much and nothing at all to say.

When Damon starts to drive back around to Elena’s place, Elena utters the first words of their drive, “Not here,” and Damon understands. Of course she doesn’t want to be in the house where Katherine compelled Jenna to stab herself. That house already has too many memories of people not coming back into it, whole or at all, and now Katherine has managed to make another one.

Damon would take her to the boarding house, except that’s where Stefan’s been hiding since the break up and Damon doesn’t really know where to take her. He’s driving aimlessly again until Elena mumbles, “Bonnie’s.”

Something changed between lately, like Bonnie had seen that there really was a bigger evil out there than Damon or Stefan. Maybe it was because the grief over her grandmother was more distant. Maybe it was because more recent tragedies had struck. Maybe it was because Bonnie didn’t think Elena was dating either of them anymore. Whatever it was, Damon was just happy that Bonnie let him into her house long enough to make sure that Elena was settled there. She didn’t even make any comments about brain aneurysms if he dared come back into the house when he wasn’t wanted.


End file.
